


Mindy Park from SatCon

by jkathwrotethis



Category: The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-11 01:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4415315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jkathwrotethis/pseuds/jkathwrotethis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mindy Park from SatCon was given two weeks paid vacation as soon as Mark Watney made it onto the Hermes.  Her constant monitoring of Mars was over, her schedule could return to match Earth's, and her job could cease being so life or death.  She was the woman who found Watney alive, and although she didn't do any of the math or engineering or actual retrieval of him, she helped bring him home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mindy Park from SatCon

Mindy Park from SatCon was given two weeks paid vacation as soon as Mark Watney made it onto the Hermes. Her constant monitoring of Mars was over, her schedule could return to match Earth's, and her job could cease being so life or death. She was the woman who found Watney alive, and although she didn't do any of the math or engineering or actual retrieval of him, she helped bring him home.

Mindy spent those two weeks sleeping, shifting her schedule back to match Earth's, and relaxing without the fear that he would die when her back was turned. She had, previously, slept when he slept in an attempt not to miss a second of his waking life, but she never knew if an emergency would pop up in the middle of the night. The majority of her nightmares were about Watney dying because she missed something, or was having lunch, or was asleep when something major happened. And the nightmares didn't stop when he made it onto the ship. Eighteen months of worry didn't stop overnight, especially when he had come so close to death so many times. Mindy Park couldn't always sleep through the night anymore, despite the relative safety of the Hermes crew.

She returned to work clutching her cup of coffee like a lifeline, a too familiar sight for her former work friends. Eighteen months ago they were close, but Mindy discovering Watney caught her up in a whirlwind that took her away from them. Those she had worked with on the Watney rescue mission understood, and they walked down the hallway beside her, more often than not holding coffee cups of their own. This terrible club they belonged to, that forced them to be responsible for saving a life in the most ridiculous of circumstances, reconvened this morning when those who had been under the most stress returned.

NASA had now had all its employees 'back to 100%' now that the mission was back on track, albeit eighteen months behind schedule. Mindy returned to her office, checked her email, and received her new assignment. She now was heading up the team that would analyze all photos from Mars. Mindy was relieved to have a less stressful job, and she got to work on a project that she was arguably the most qualified for, despite it not being a completely 'new' assignment.

Mindy loved her new position. She had to do a bit of supervision, but not too much, and she still got to look at photos of Mars every day. Every so often, however, she'd notice an anomaly that she couldn't quite explain. She theorized plenty, and sent the photos on to other departments that could probably explain the anomaly, but she started a file called 'Questions' on her laptop. Every few days, Mindy added a new question she had for Mark Watney when he returned. (NASA didn't want to overburden him on his 211 day return flight, and he was to carry out some originally planned biology and mechanical engineering experiments. So no questions about his time on Mars unless absolutely necessary to get the Hermes home safely.) So this folder grew and grew, with subfolders labeled Rocks, Craters, and Hills.

Once Watney's entire mission log had been transmitted, Mindy was on the short list of those granted immediate access. Not because she could necessarily learn the most from the log, or change the face of science with the information it contained, but because she helped him make it onto that ship. She spent a week reading his log, and by the end of the week she had a new folder in her file, labeled '?'. It was every random question that ran through her head, however strange of unrelated to her current job it was. Mindy had spent so long with Watney, and she knew she would never get to ask him these questions, but for the remainder of the Hermes's flight home, she added to this folder.

When the Hermes's crew returned home, they got a month off. Standard debriefing protocol was ignored for those who had spent so long away from their families, and Mindy, with her small bit of influence with the Watney rescue team, had advocated this mandatory vacation. Her role in the rescue had also earned her a spot at the homecoming, where she got to see the crew disembark. Her nightmares, which had faded, did not return after she saw the crew step back onto Earth, with Watney, lowest ranked at the start of the mission, as the first to leave.

When the Aries 3 mission crew returned to NASA, they had offices in her hallway. It seemed that her hallway was where they stuck the big names with Ares 3, and she'd been pretty alone, surrounded by empty offices because she didn't urgently need to contact the big names to prevent the Hermes from blowing up or Lewis driving everyone crazy with her 70's music. Mark Watney's office happened to be across the hall from hers, and she saw him through the wide glass window everyday, just like she had when it actually was her job to watch him.

Mindy noticed that he always seemed a bit antsy, and from her vast array of Watney knowledge she had discerned that he was never meant for an office. But he and the entire team were writing extensive mission reports, and dodging the paparazzi that had plagued him since he left Mars. As the woman who was in charge of pictures of and relating to Mark Watney, she was extremely creeped out by them, and assumed Watney was as well. Strangely enough, they barely spoke aside from occasional pleasantries, until Watney bumped into her in the hallway and spilled his entire large coffee on her.

He apologized vehemently, "Sometimes I forget that there are people around to bump into, even now." he joked.

"Well," Mindy said, "For most of the past year there were only five people you could've hit, and I am not one of them."

But Mindy had noticed the way he had been gripping his coffee. Like it was a lifeline.

"And I've got the best coffee machine at NASA tucked away in my office, so come on in for a new cup."

This was already the longest conversation they'd had, as in their earlier conversations Watney was the only one talking. Well, not talking, but using rocks and Morse code to communicate. Watney accepted her invitation into her office, and Mindy invited him to sit.

"How in the solar system did you acquire this amazing couch in your office? All I got is a horribly uncomfortable one i think NASA picked up at yard sale."

Mindy pulled a clean blouse out of the emergency bag she still kept in her office from the Watney mission.

"Same reason I have a few days worth of clothes in my old duffel bag under my desk. I never knew if I would have to stay here for a few days," Mindy replied. She pulled on her new blouse and brought him over the coffee that'd just finished brewing.

"Knew," Watney said.

"What?"

"I mean, you used the past tense. I know I work across the hall and should probably know this, but what do you do, and when did your job change?" Watney asked and then sipped his coffee, "And this is definitely the best NASA coffee I've had."

"I bet it far beats potato skin tea," Mindy joked. Wateny laughed, and then looked a bit confused.

"Okay, now I really need to know what you do because you've gotta be high up, my logs are so classified I don't think I can look at them," he said.

Mindy wasn't surprised he didn't know her role. They never really spoke, apart from some one way Morse code, and in his short time back at NASA he couldn't have read even a fraction of the reports about his rescue mission, let alone the few that directly mentioned her.

"Would you believe me if I said Kapoor owed me a favor? Because I think all of NASA owes me about as many favors as I'd like to collect."

"What did you do? Because I thought only I had earned that many favors, and that's just from some bad luck."

"I think the list consists of you, me and Rich Purnell," MIndy laughed, "and I didn't do anything as grand as either of you. I just had the luck to be working when the pictures came through, and was the first one to put the pieces together."

She watched as Mark put the pieces together himself.

"You...you're the one who found me?" "Yep. And then I learned some Morse code," Mindy replied a bit jokingly, trying to make it seem like the luck that it was.

Watney set down his coffee and got up to hug Mindy.

"I owe you, so very much. You saved my life," Watney said as he sat back down.

"You owe me the million cups of nightmare coffee I drank, but I think you're the one who needs them now."

"You noticed?" Watney asked a bit sheepishly.

"Everyone in this entire hallway has noticed. We all learned to recognize nightmare coffee about a week after I found you on Mars," Mindy Park said quite seriously. But she added, "That's how I got this coffee maker. I worked Sols, not days, and I clutched the most cups of nightmare coffee. This was NASA's first favor. The couch was the second. And you're welcome to either, anytime."

"Thank you," Watney said, still a little in awe of this woman who had never left earth but might understand the best what his experience was like.

"And I've probably had your nightmares, so telling me about them won't burden my mind," Mindy replied matter-of-factly.

"I couldn't."

"I'm one of the few who could possibly get it. So, because you can't have my solution of you coming back to earth to get rid of your nightmares, your're going to tell me them. And before you protest, I suggest an exchange."

"What kind of exchange?" Watney questioned Mindy with a hint of a smirk. He was starting to like this girl.

"Every nightmare you unload, I get to ask a question."

"Isn't there some ridiculous NASA question pile I'm working my way though? Why not just submit it?" Watney asked, with genuine curiosity.

"I have submitted quite a few questions based on my photo analysis, but that's not what I mean. I've got an entire folder full of questions for you that I doubt NASA would deem 'scientifically necessary,'" Mindy asked with a smile, "You lived on Mars, and I've been through even your logs. And I'd like to know you and your story."

"Sounds like a deal, Mindy Park," replied Mark Watney, and they were both smiling as they shook on it.


End file.
